Combined shirt and suspensory bandage.



N0. 642,920. Patented Feb. 6, |900. S. POTTS.

COMBINED SHIRT AND SUSPENSDRY BANDAGE.

(Application filed July 8. 1899.)

No Model.)

@j/asses UNrTnD STATES PATENT OFFICE.

STACY POTTS, OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

COMBINED SHIRT AND SUSPENSORY BANDAGE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 642,920, dated February 6, 1900.

Application filed July 8, 1899. Serial No. 723,226. (No model.)

To all whom t may concern:

Be it'known that I, STACY POTTS, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Washington, in the District of Columbia,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in a Combined Shirt and Supporter, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to an improvement in combined shirts and supporters. Hit-herto articles of this character have been made in which the supporter portion depended from the rear of the shirt and was adapted to pass forward between the legs and thence upward, where it was secured over the lower portion of the abdomen by means of lacing,hooks and eyes, strings, or what not; but the objection to this form of device is apparent, first, because any material between the legs is liable to chafe and heat that portion of the body and become soiled. There is the stillfurther objection, and by no means the least objectionable feature, to wit, that the supporter when constructed and fastened in this manner has to be repeatedly loosened and unt'astened when the wearer has occasion to exercise the natural bodily functions.

The object of my invention is to provide a combined shirt and supporter which will obviate theY foregoing objectionable features and at the same time afford an adjustable supporter for the scrotum alone Without requiring unfastening except When the shirt is removed from the body; and with these objects in view the invention consists of a shirt having a depending flap at its lower forward end, with means for adjusting and securing the flap beneath and around the wearers testicles and with an orifice for the penis.

The invention still further consists in certain novel features of construction and combinations of parts, which will be hereinafter more fully described, and particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure lis a front view of a shirt, showing the flap in its normally-lowered position, with draw-strings attached for fastening and adjusting the fiap. Fig. 2 is a similar View showing the flap in its raised position. Fig. 3 is a View from the rear, and Figs. 4 and 5 are details.

A represents a shirt of ordinary construction and B is a iap formed at the lower end thereof, preferably as a continuation of the material constituting the shirt., This flap is, by preference,slightly curved or rounded at its lower end, Where it is folded over into a hem l. At the side edges one or more, and usually at least two, eyelets 2 and 3 are formed in the iiap, and above these eyelets and in the body of the shirt the additional eyelets 4 -t are made.

A draw-string C is passed alternately inward and outward through these eyelets and through hem l, its two ends extending outward, as'indicated, in convenient position to be pulled to adjust the flap and give it the desired tension. As a result of this construction and arrangement the draw-string can be pulled so as to give the flap the desired bag or pouch shape about the wearers privates, and by means of the draw string passed loosely through the eyelets and hem the string can be drawn a greater or less amount, as required, from either end, so that the adjustment is rendered perfect. By the particular method of passing the string in and out through the eyelets the sides of the flap are drawn together into a tightly-folded position, whereas the lower edge, where the hem is formed, is not drawn so tightly, but yet with sufficient tension to lit the body at that point. When drawn to the required position, the strings are tied together, and the parts remain as adjusted. The orifice 6 is formed for the penis. Thus it will be seen that only the tes-v ticles are enveloped in the supporter, so that the shirt with attached supporter can be worn with the utmost convenience and comfort. At the same time there is no difficulty in washing the garment. Neither is there any difficulty in manufacturing the article, as the entire garment can be made in one piece.

In the manufacture it might be desirable to place a reinforce back of the portion of the shirt containing the eyelets and orifice. This, of course, would be entirely within the discretion of the manufacturer of the goods and in accordance with the exigencies of the trade.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. As an article of manufacture, ashirt having a flap formed atits lower forward end, said iiap having a hem at its lower edge and IOO a draw-strin g having loose sliding connection through said hem and a, portion of the shirt and adapted to be drawn and tied atits ends for the support and adjustment of the lower und side edges of the liep.

2. As an article of manufacture, a shirthaving a iiap at its lower forward end depending from the body portion of the shirt and having an orifice therein for the purpose specified,

1o the lower edge of the flap rounded and folded over to form a hem, eyelets formed at the edges oi' the flap and in the body of the shirt, and a draw-string passed in and out through said eyelets and through the hem for adjust-w` ing the flap.

STACY POTTS.

In presence of- VERNON E. HODGES, RALPH S. WARFIELD. 

